In a potentiometer circuit, if the length of the wire is doubled, what happens to the potential gradient?
Practice Questions
1 question
Q1
In a potentiometer circuit, if the length of the wire is doubled, what happens to the potential gradient?
It doubles.
It halves.
It remains the same.
It quadruples.
The potential gradient is defined as the potential difference per unit length. If the length is doubled with the same potential difference, the gradient halves.
Questions & Step-by-step Solutions
1 item
Q
Q: In a potentiometer circuit, if the length of the wire is doubled, what happens to the potential gradient?
Solution: The potential gradient is defined as the potential difference per unit length. If the length is doubled with the same potential difference, the gradient halves.
Steps: 5
Step 1: Understand what potential gradient means. It is the amount of voltage (potential difference) per unit length of the wire.
Step 2: If you have a wire with a certain length and a certain voltage across it, you can calculate the potential gradient by dividing the voltage by the length of the wire.
Step 3: Now, if you double the length of the wire but keep the voltage the same, you need to recalculate the potential gradient.
Step 4: Since the length is now twice as long, the potential gradient will be the same voltage divided by a longer length.
Step 5: This means the potential gradient will be smaller, specifically it will be half of what it was before.
